She could have created all of this.
She’s obsessed with me.”
Carolina looked at him as if she were finally seeing his real face.
“You said you loved me.”
“I said what I needed to say because you would not leave me alone.”
Mateo cried louder.
Carolina’s shoulders folded inward, but only for a moment.
Then she lifted her chin.
“Tell them whose son he is.”
Bruno looked toward the officers instead.
“Her private life has nothing to do with this.”
“You made it part of this,” she said.
“You promised we would live in Mariana’s house once she was gone.”
Silence spread through the room.
Even Bruno seemed to understand that she had said too much for him to explain away.
He recovered quickly.
“Gone means divorced.
She is twisting my words.”
“Then let them hear your words,” Carolina replied.
She picked up her phone and restarted the recording.
Bruno’s voice filled the room, clear and unmistakable.
“Once the pills are in Mariana’s bathroom, Dr.
Paredes signs the incapacity report.
After that, she won’t control the house, the accounts, or anything else.”
A quieter voice—Carolina’s—asked, “What if she refuses to take them?”
“She doesn’t have to take all of them.
We only need the bag there and enough in her system to support the report.”
My stomach tightened.
The recording continued.
“And the signature?” Carolina asked.
“Already handled.
The bank wants one more verification, but I can manage that once I have authority over her accounts.”
“Bruno, this sounds illegal.”
“It sounds like protecting a sick woman from herself.
Use the right words and people believe anything.”
The officer stopped the recording.
No one spoke for several seconds.
Bruno’s expression had changed.
The outrage was gone.
His eyes moved from the phone to the pharmacy bag, then to the papers Lucía had brought.
He was calculating.
“That recording is edited,” he said.
“Carolina has been threatening me for weeks.
She wants money.”
“You bought me an apartment,” Carolina said.
“I paid the deposit,” he snapped.
“That does not make the child mine.”
The cruelty of it seemed to shock even him after the words left his mouth.
Carolina reached into the back of her folder and removed a sealed clinic envelope.
“You demanded a paternity test before you agreed to pay for the birth,” she said.
“You kept the original.
I kept a copy.”
She handed it to the female officer.
Bruno crossed the room in two fast steps and grabbed for the envelope.
The other officer caught his arm before he reached it.
